Who Will Check the Dogs’ Genitalia?

Example of a fluffy dog: I have always thought of Chow Chows as unpredictable when it comes to biting and nipping. Good luck checking a male Chow Chow’s genitalia. (Photo: Wikipedia.com)

Before reading, you might want to read the posting directly below, “TUESDAY: 17th Street Dog Park Community Meeting.” From the posting: The Dupont Current ran a front page story in last week’s paper, “Park success may lead to bone of contention.” ANC 2B/Dupont Commissioner Bob Meehan is quoted in the Current story and told the paper that the believes the meeting will focus on hours of operation, the number of dogs in the park at any one time and whether un-neutered male dogs should be permitted on the premises.

Prohibition of un-neutered males in the dog park? I see. Okay…

No disrespect to Commissioner Meehan is intended here; he was one of the ANC 2B/Dupont commissioners who worked very hard to make this dog park reality. And, as a dog owner, I know how contentious these issues can be. I am sure Meehan was just saying what some dog park regulars have suggested.

However, if it is decided that male dogs who are un-neutered are going to be banned from the 17th Street dog park, I have some questions:

Who, exactly, is going to check the dogs’ genitalia as they enter the park?

What about male dogs with fluffy and/or long hair that cover their gonads? Will there be a person at the entrance who will lift up the dog’s tail and rummage around looking for the male dog’s gonads? All I can say is, Good luck with that one!

Will we require dog owners to keep their dogs’ butts shaved so that we can view their genitalia? Their bellies, too?

Will this be a volunteer job? Or will the DC Department of Parks and Recreation hire someone? Will they have health insurance? They’re probably going to need it.

If the only-12-dogs-in-the-park at one time rule cannot be enforced, how will would a rule involving genitalia be enforced?

In the meantime, I assume it will still be just fine for clueless parents to bring small children (toddlers and infants even) inside the dog park and tell them to “play with the little doggies.” I was there one day with Lupe and a woman was ENCOURAGING her tiny son (maybe 2 years old) to run around with a STICK while “playing” with the doggies. Lady, why not just tie a porkchop around your kid’s neck next time?

This is clearly another demonstration of poorly thought out regulation or someone who has never spent time around dogs.

Perhaps the concept of requiring the dogs’ genitalia to be shaved merits some consideration – following the trend of many human males nowadays!

Courtney

This entire post made my day.

Ann

You scoff, but someone has to do something about irresponsible dog owners — and there are plenty of them at this dog park. If you don’t want to neuter your dog, that’s your choice — but you’d better watch him like a hawk. And you DAMN sure better pull him and his hard-on off of my unassuming female dog who is just trying to be social and play. I have pulled several male dogs off of female dogs at this park, and their owners are either a) nowhere to be found or b) nearby watching and laughing. It’s appalling.

Please don’t minimize the risk to the female dogs — or their owners who have to try to step in.

mattyillini

(1) HOW will this be enforced? (2) I believe the issue of small children being allowed inside any dog park is a very serious matter. At this point, I have not heard that the Powers That Be intend to address this matter. Why?

As for our dog? We have a female dog (neutered) and she can play very hard (it’s the herding dog thing, Border Collie-Corgi cross), so we DO watch her very closely even though she only weighs 31 pounds. In fact, she pinned an aggressive young Pit Bull against the fence one day at Shaw Dog Park (he was fixed).

All dogs must be monitored closely. Irresponsible owners should be banned. I think you need to create rules that address the REALLY important stuff — child safety — and can be enforced.

Rebecca

I don’t think anyone is scoffing about risks, but generally, a dog that has been neutered is not necessarily a better-behaved dog. I’ve seen neutered aggressive dogs and calm, unassuming intact dogs. Also, mounting is a dominance game, not a sexual overture, unless the female dog is also intact and in heat. Neutered dogs will engage in the very same behavior. It’s important not to let your dog be a bully by constantly trying to mount or be aggressive to another dog, but mounting is often part of normal dog-play behavior—yes, including the ‘hard on’ and yes, neutered males can still become erect. The real point is that the regulation is impossible to enforce and it doesn’t solve the problem of people bringing aggressive dogs to the park and/or not monitoring their dogs.

Avi

The absurdity of trying to enforce the separation of neutered dogs vs. the un-neutered dogs begs question of: how do you enforce this, and who is going to check on this. What next, a rule that states which days the un-neutered dogs will be allowed into the park? Going down this road leads to madness.

Urban dog owners, for the most part, are a pretty responsible bunch (and don’t go bleating at my like some mad sheep that there are also IRRESPONSIBLE dog owners. I used to live in Boulder, Colorado, a dog lover’s paradise if there every was one, and encountered many a stupid dog owner). I’m sure they want a nice space for their dogs to run and play, and I’m sure they want some guidelines on how to maintain this good thing. After all, the city could give up on these parks, and 17th and R will revert to it’s unkempt and very ugly previous condition. Parents, however, really need to be warned about the dangers of putting their children in harms way so that they can “get to know dogs.” One bad incident involving a dog and a child, and the damage to the dog-owning community will be sown. Contrary to the facts, it won’t be the parent’s held accountable when their precious offspring gets a face full of dog teeth.

Instead of having another dreary meeting, why not survey other dog parks, in other cities, and simply adopt (AND ENFORCE) those best practices? This would save a lot of time, and channel a lot of people’s “energies” towards the more necessary issues we need to confront and overcome.

Ryan (human)and Fergus (the pink pup)

Honestly I do not like that park one bit. It is not properly cleaned so it smells terribly. Also, I am sick of people not doing a god damned thing when their dogs tag team my poor little Fergus and other dogs that are not wanting to be humped.

At the end of the day it isup to the law biding regulars to say to people when they come in “hey this is not what we do here” or “hey dog walker with more than one dog do not bring your business here” or “get the %&*# out of here with your dog and his functional balls”.

Stand up people because no one is going to protect you or your pup from the idiots that do not follow rules other than yourselves.

There was a lady at the dog park over by Logan who at first I thought was crazy when she would kick people out of the dog park. I understand her now, if we do not create order there will be chaos.

I am lucky and have a rear garden in DuPont so not using that park does not hurt me one bit. It would be nice if I could take my dog there to meet other dogs though. It is just so gross and overused.

Neighbor

Why did none of you make these protests at last night’s meeting? The intact dog issue is not so much about humping as it is about how other dogs react to intact dogs.

Moot point, as the park is filty, and the organization in charge of running it simply shrugs and says “we’re new, what can we do?!”

I encourage you to contact [email protected] with issues/comments. This is everyone’s park, so get off your phone/blackberry, put down your food (why are you bringing food to a dog park?!), and watch your dog(s). And for the love of all things, have a community clean up day so the turf can be hosed off. It’s not that difficult, and people want to help/volunteer without being part of some ‘committee’.

Neighbor

Also – if you notice an owner not watching their dog(s), not picking up after their dog, not curbing excessive barking (which was a big issue at the meeting), PLEASE point this out.

If you’re not comfortable with a child in the park (they take on all liability as soon as they enter the park, for what it’s worth) then tell the parents – there’s a child park literally 3 minutes away on R Street. They shouldn’t be at the park.

someone might not know the perspective you bring up and rethink their, and their dog’s, behavior.

What is the issue here, humping or female dogs being inseminated. Matrix is my buddy, a pit bull rescue that loves.. LOVES playing with other dogs. This inculdes the following:
running alongside as fast as they can and then he jumps and laterally bumps into the other dog creating a ball of fur and dust.
If two dogs get into a growling match, Matrix wants to be in the middle of it, not growling as much as wanting to be an instigator.
Matrix can take the calmest looking dog, piss him off just by looking at him prompting the other dog to attack or bite him.
Matrix loves the hump game, it starts with who can keep whos head above the other dogs head, then it goes to side mounting and then the full mount.
Some dogs could care less and lay down or sit making humping not as practical.
Matrix will hump boys girls hermaphrodites, does it have four legs a tail and teeth, it’s humpable.
I’m envious a bit, I mean, where can I go, to get my genitals licked by one of my own species as a greeting!

As far as Children
My dog weighs 55#=24.95kg Avg 7y/o weighs 50.6#=22.95kg
My dogs average speed is 25 mph = 11.176 m/s
The depth that a dog would travel to push a child out of a stationary position is 15 cm giving us an estimated impact time of 0.0134 seconds Under these conditions the impact force of the dog is F=m*(change in velocity)/(change in time)comming in around 4,673 pounds or 2.3 tons. of course these estimates are in a closed system with center of mass of dog and child being identically matched up with no friction on the ground. but even if you reduced it by half the impact of a dog running blissfully into a child could be more than 1 ton or 2,000 pounds of force.
That doesn’t include the bite risk, of Josephines Cocker spaniel deciding the childs nose is tasty!

Pat

@ Matrix Dad: Your pit bull male or female, eutered/spayed or not is statistically much m ore likly to harm a person or other dog than an un nueutered dog.

YOu truley worry me since you have a pit bull and don;t ko the baics. Dog’s humping has nothing to do with insemination 99.9% of the time, it is an assertion of aggresive dominance.

@Ann: You frighten me because, no offense, you own a dog and know nothing about dogs. Neutered dogs don’t hum less. Neutered dogs get the same number and type of erections.

There is one statistically significant difference…unneutered male dogs are SUBJECT to more aggression. That is why they don’t belong in a dog park.

The idea tha tit is responsibility to neuter a male dog to control its behavior is a 18 and 19th century idea disproven by facts and studies.

@Avi, the Park is not at 17th and R but at 17th and S, and it was not “unkempt” until it became taken over by dog owners. It was a beautiful little park that residence from 15 years ago fully repaired and people came to it to eat lunch all the time.

By the way a child getting a face full of dogs teeth is not always the child’s fault as you imply. there are many more idiot dog owners than their are parents.

@Matty: good points, but how are you going to ban irresponsible dog owners? they are a fact of life. thee is only one way — having them cited by police for objective violations. The first citations ought to be given for unlicensed dogs.

An actual resident

I am pretty sure “neighbor” posting on Oct 14 is not acutally a resident. What park Child’s park are they talking about on R St? Do they mean the school playground which is CLOSED to resdients with children all day M-F and closed on Saturday and sunday mornings until NOON due to noise issues brought up by neighbors?

Stop posting if you don’t even know the neighborhood.

You could see children playing all time at the S and 17thg St park until the dog people took it over.

For your information, if you want to talk about statistics. Counter my facts..

The American Temperment Testing Society has a standardized temperment test for all dogs. http://www.atts.org/stats1.html
They have tested 28,955 dogs 23,711 passed their test, 5,244 did not pass for a rate of 81.9%
Matrix is one of the 655 dogs in the American Pit Bull Terrier cohort that has taken this test & passed. Average rate of pit bull’s passing this test 85.3%. Now show me where “pit bulls” are
“”{statistically much more likly to harm a person or other dog than an un nueutered dog}””

Just because people think it is a pit bull doesn’t mean it is so. The media will not correct misprints, if a beagle attacks a three year old for pulling its ears, it is likely without seeing the dog, the media will call it a pit bull. With a picture of the beagle aka pit bull in the article.

You show me a bad dog, I’ll show you a bad owner!

Matrix also has been certified to be a therapy dog. And for a brief period of time was a perscribed service animal for an Iraq Veteran suffering from PTSD. So next time you are flying AA be sure and say hi to the owner of the ‘working’ service animal!